good morning, sunshine! all right. rainy start for a lot of you. first, though, good morning. i'm robin meade. right now people on the gulf coast are getting slammed by the strong winds and heavy rain. who is in the path of tropical storm ida right now and what you can expect. don't put your children in a mcclarn umbrella stroller right now. some kids were seriously hurt in them, a certain kind of them, and there's an urgent recall to tell you about we've got that in about two minutes. there's a fix for it. a family started losing hope of being found alive after they got stuck in a snowstorm. but a phone call led to an

amazing rescue. weather first here. tropical storm ida is expected to make landfall near the missly/alabama state line soon, in fact. the storm could still cause some flooding, even though it's getting weaker as it closes in on the gulf coast. we just got this tape in. the region is bracing for as much as 8 inches of rain. i'm not just talking about the gulf coast area. florida and louisiana are taking precauti precautions. both of those states have joined mississippi and alabama in declaring states of emergency. >> usually when we have hurricanes it's so muggy out we can come out in our shorts, it's not brr out down at the beach. >> it's a little weird. you don't see that much, but, you know, it happens and just got to roll with it. >> bob's tracking ida this morning and the big concern maybe not so much the storm surge, but the rain and wait until you see where it's going. >> the exact location, switch sources to jr 199, here's what

it looks like. the new updated numbers coming in. look at the squalls coming on through. the center of circulation is still offshore. if you look at the satellite picture all the big thunderstorm action is north of there as it begins to develop. when you look at landfall not that big of a deal with the storm system itself. all the rain is in play when you get towards alabama, mississippi, georgia, and tennessee, and stretches out to the east over the next couple days. we're talking 8 inches of rain. 50-mile-per-hour sustained winds falling a part just a bit. it's really going to be the flooding rain that we're watching. more details in a couple minutes. >> big problem all the way up in north carolina. thank you. today at ft. hood, president obama joins grieving families and a shaken community of looking for answers to last week's deadly shooting presprooe. he's going to meet privately with those killed and he will attend a memorial service at the army post. meanwhile, the fbi is starting a new internal review to see if it missed any red flags about the

suspect, major nidal hasan. >> i guess no one saw the signs on him and they missed the signs with him, can you imagine if they miss the signs with someone else? i mean, you know, ridiculous. >> i think that there were probably a lot of connections that should have been made that weren't made, but we're at war and we're under a lot of pressure and maybe that's, you know, that's what happened. >> major hasan is still in the intensive care unit at an army hospital in san antonio. investigators believe that he acted alone and was not part of a terror plot. sources say that he was never put on a watch list, even after they found the e-mails between him and a muslim cleric linked to two of the 9/11 hijackers. investigators said there were no mention of threats or violence. president bill clinton or former president bill clinton will try to get senate democrats to support health care reformp. he's going to meet with senators during their weekly caucus tomorrow. democratic leaders have said that if democrats fail on health care, they'll pay for it on

election day. that's what happened when clinton failed on his health care bid in 1994 and republicans took congress. if you own what's called a mcclarn umbrella stroller stop using it immediately. some kids have been getting their fingers stuck in the side hinge and i don't mean just stuck. here's jennifer looking out for you. good morning. >> good morning. thanks. this is a million strollers we're talking about and they have a very dangerous problem when they get their fingers in there, it's clipping off the top of them, 12 kids have lost a fingert fingertip. these are the nine models of the double and single umbrella strollers sold over the last ten years. it may also mean that say you go to a thrift store to get an expensive stroller for a cheap price you have to be careful too. there's an easy fix, the consumer product safety says call mcclarn as part of the recall, they'll send you a free cover, it goes on over the hinge and perfectly safe.

if you need more information, see all the strollers that are involved, our web page, cnn.com/robin has all the links you need. >> and someone's going umbrella stroller, what's that? one of those things that just collapses down really fast? it's one of those -- it's not all -- >> you need a dad, bob. >> no. it's the one that will pinch your fingers, you know the one that will collapse. >> down to about the size of an umbrella. >> fold up and put on your shoulder. yeah. you fold it up and put it on your shoulder. like a transformer. >> thank you. >> i'm the dad. i know what i'm talking about. >> five minutes after the hour. one of the d.c. snipers ex-wives believes she was his ultimate target. john allan muhammad's execution is tonight. the supreme court rejected his final appeal. virginia's governor could step in. muhammad's accomplice lee boyd malvo got life in prison. more from muhammad's family including what his son says

about today. you may have growing doubt about the government's ability to ward off an h1n1 epidemic. it's according to a new survey that's out today. the cnn opinion research corporation poll finds that since august, 8% more americans have lost confidence that h1n1 prevention will happen. 53% are actually hopeful that the government and private companies can produce enough of the vaccine. oh, my goodness, look at this piece of tape. it's crazy. a woman it fell on to a train track moments before the train arrived and there she goes. here's the video. this happened friday in boston. she lost her balance, putting out a cigarette and fell. look at all the people waving, trying to get the train to stop. transit police say that she was intoxicated. people frantically waved at the train and the driver was able to stop it just in time. look how close to her. the woman's okay. the train driver was honored yesterday. >> looks like a cartoon drunk

right there. wobbling around missing the third rail, doing all that stuff. >> seriously. why didn't she get up before the train stopped. >> the third rail right there, talking boston t right? that will kill you as soon as you touch it. she's so lucky. what's going on. let me show you what's going on. the satellite picture before of tropical storm ida, those are brand new numbers, these are brand new numbers. we got these a couple minutes ago. 45 mile sustained winds right now. it will move to the due east, basically down i-10 before finally gets ab sort into this cold front right here and then reforms off the coast of the carolinas. that's one part. also look at the clouds developing across western atlantic, that's another disturbed area of weather that national hurricane center is looking at, possibility of some tropdevelopment here. either way this may combine with ida around the carolina coastline, get a strong east wind going for the end of the week. something we're going to be watching, as far north as the new england coast.

that's something in the cards later today and tomorrow. it's getting towards northern alabama, stretching back towards mississippi. still have the tropical storm warnings for the coast, inland tropical storm wind warnings, see them lower parts of alabama, parts of mississippi too. rain is off shore from western florida, but when you get towards the tallahassee metro area, here's your feeder ban, the main one, where you're going to find all the winds, 45-mile-per-hour winds there. the rain stretches into atlanta, the greens, the yellows, that's heavy downpour action. trying to get in or out of the hartsfield jackson airport it's going to be a tough go. low clouds, rain is here, three or four inches of rain today through tonight and even into tomorrow. more on that in about a half hour. >> not a good flying day for our business folks. flying during the holidays is expensive enough but while you're stuck at the airport you can stay connected and someone else is going to pay the bill. i think that's good news. plus basketball legend kareem abdul-jabar says he is sick and wants everyone to know about it.

the man known as the d.c. sniper is scheduled to be put to death in just 14 hours. john allan muhammad and his accomplice gunned down ten people back in 2002, and his two ex-wives are dealing with what might happen to muhammad very differently. muhammad's first ex-wife and oldestson plan to visit him today. last night his son told larry king from our sister network cnn what today's meeting might be like. >> it will probably be a hug, but more so, it just is going to be a conference. we need to get some things out in the open. i haven't talked to him in years so, of course, i have some questions that i need to ask him. >> in prison muhammad wrote twice a week to his first ex-wife, mostly talking about how much he loved his kids.

she plans to take his body home with them for a private burial. now, muhammad's second ex-wife is doing something very different. she and -- her three teenage children will not visit muhammad today. mildred muhammad says the sniper shootings were part of a plan to kill her. she said muhammad told her he would kill her after she filed for divorce. she moved her family to maryland to hide and shortly after then the shootings began. she says she felt guilty when she first heard he was suspect. >> i felt that way initially because i had done everything that i knew how to do in order to bring attention to how dangerous john was for me. i had no idea that his anger would extend beyond me to include other people in his killings. >> muhammad's second wife also says she does not believe he is mentally ill, as his attorneys argue. okay. let's get over to jen westhovan, any money in the stock market,

watch the numbers overnight, man, we were up big time and jen was watching saying it had to do with some g-20 meeting or something. >> that was part of it. it's been happening for days too. powerful rally last night, taking the dow up to its best level in a year. this has been going on a few days now. so that's some good news in a bad economy. the fed, it all started when the fed said rates are going to stay low and then came world leaders at the g-20 pledging to keep pumping billions of dollars into their economies. when they do that, that helps the many companies in their countries, that can help the recovery. at the closing bell, the dow up 203 points, taking it to 10,226. solidly back over the 10,000 mark, gains and the nasdaq and s&p too. this holiday season if you are flying to visit some family or friends maybe you want to pack your laptop. at almost 50 airports there's going to be free wi-fi from goog google. it's not all the big airports, though. we were kind of looking closely

at this. you can get it at miami, san jose, seattle and houston, but not in atlanta, newark or jfk, among others. >> what? >> yeah. i don't -- they didn't say why, but i was thinking maybe because they're so huge. >> maybe it would be hard to wire up or whatever you have to do for it. >> we have the full list so you'll know if it's worth it to bring it or not, lug on the extra stuff, cnn.com/robin. it's hard to choose because if you're packing your gifts and don't want to check anything you have to be careful with your packing. >> all right. thank you. it's time right now for a salute to the troops. today's salute is for private first class william aaron oxford from his mom. she missed his birthday and he is missed at home as well. >> hi, robin. i'm robin gregory and my salute is going out to my wonderful son, private first class aaron oxford. i'm sure he's going to pick on me by the end of this because i am going to cry. but aaron, we're all very proud of you. we want you to be safe.

please know that we love you and we can't wait for you to come home. i might not understand why you've joined the army fully, but i'm very proud of what you're doing. >> all right. robin, thank you very much. and i don't think she did cry during that message, so if you have somebody in the service and you want to salute them, go to cnn.com/robin. remember the former astronaut accused of trying to kidnap her romantic rival in some kind of a love triangle, lisa nowak is due in court today. you will hear about a plea deal on the table. michael jackson's father is challenging his late son's will. he says the executors of his son's will made a big mistake.

good morning! hope you're awake at 17 minutes past the hour and that you're on time here. president obama hopes to become the first sitting president to visit hiroshima and nagasaki, the cities hit by u.s. nukes during world war ii. it won't happen when he visits ya japan this weekend. he says his schedule is full. in the past presidents have avoided the cities so they don't appeal critical of the decisions to drop nukes. many think it saved lives ending the war. another astronaut accused of attacking another woman over an ex-boyfriend may take a plea deal. lisa nowak will be in court in florida. prosecutors say the deal has some conditions but they're not giving the details. nowak pleaded not guilty to attempted kidnapping and other charges. the woman she allegedly attacked is expected to be there today as well. that ought to be interesting. new this morning, basketball legend kareem john allan muhammad has -- kareem abdul-ja

has revealed he has cancer. >> he was not only one of the greatest basketball players of all time but also a star in movies like "airplane" and tv shows. it was shocking to hear the 62-year-old saying he has a rare form of blood cancer called chronic myeloid. leukemia. the good news, his doctor says he has a very good chance of living a normal life with the disease and won't impact his life much at all. he's trying to raise awareness and wants to give hope to others that have it. he approached a pharmaceutical company to launch an educational campaign. he's working as a paid spokesman for them. in other news you may remember lagarret blunt punching a player in the beginning of the season. this was a fun way to start the year. he got suspended indefinitely for the entire year. well, he's back. this weekend, against arizona state, the school asked the pac-10 conference to let him back, they said okay, to be fair, boise state head coach said he's okay with him coming back as well. monday night football, the

broncos hosting pittsburgh, giving a little thank you to the veterans before the game. thank you for your service. and then the steelers with this come from behind win. look, hines ward just jump over champ bailey. that's a little embarrassing. but this is cute. he finds a few steeler fans in denver and finds a guy wearing his jersey and says you wear my jersey, you can have a ball. that's a good day for him. meet 44-year-old scott smith from new jersey who has almost every "sports illustrated" ever printed and he also got many of them signed by those on the cover. he says he spent between $300,000 and $400,000 to get the signatures and now he is selling the whole thing on ebay, starting bid, $2 million. >> wow. >> starting bid, $2 million. >> wonder if he'll get some real bids. that's a lot of time in your life spent collecting, isn't it? >> yep. >> bob, do you have a collection of anything? >> mad magazines, but my mom

tossed them. >> still got your beer can collection. >> still have my beer can collection. my pabst is in the center. the big story today is tropical storm ida. if you're trying to travel in or out the latest numbers so far, looking at winds of about 45 miles per hour, this says 50, down to a 45 and the center of rotation is just about onshore near the alabama/mississippi line, moving to the north and all the heavy rain is ahead of that too. under the clouds, show you saber flight explorer, cool feature here, you have the rain showers and also the states. look at the planes coming in and out of atlanta. currently there's a 40 minute delay. that's the average. that will most likely climb as the rain shield continues to spread for the north. here's what will happen the rest of the day. new orleans with the wind, watch for about an hour delay. philly, morning fog, charlotte, orlando, rain and wind. more rain down in florida for jacksonville and tampa, out west, the bay area, low clouds, same with seattle, light rain there too. more in just a bit. we are right around the corner from the big holiday

travel season, but it looks like a lot of us will be frugal this time. how many americans plan to save money for travel.

the white house is slamming reports that suggest president obama already decided to send more troops to afghanistan. national security advisor general jim jones says that reports are false. senior administration officials suggest that pentagon sources leaked misinfo. the president meets with his national security team tomorrow. tropical storm ida is moving over mobile bay, alabama, right now. it's a piece of tape that we just got in recently about 30 minutes ago the national hurricane center says that ida did make landfall at dolphin island, alabama. ida has gotten weaker, though, but there is still the major concern is about the rains and thereof the flooding.

north and south korean warships clashed near their disputed seaboarder this morning exchanging fire. south korea claims a north korean ship was damaged after it deliberately crossed the border. a senior white house official says this may have been an accident that got out of control. 31 minutes past the hour. hello. come into the room and sit down for a while if you got the time. i'm robin meade. good morning, sunshine. during war time, obviously, u.s. troops know that the risks that they're facing, but today at ft. hood there is a memorial for 13 soldiers killed and the kind of attack that no one expected. a shooting rampage on the post and a fellow soldier as the suspect. president obama will attend the service and meet with the families. some of the witnesses are still stunned by what they saw. >> people started running and we could see people throwing chairs and stuff at the windows and at first, we didn't know what was going on. we couldn't hear the gunshots because the doors were closed. as people started running out you saw people brenched in blood

and people are yelling h's shooting, he's shooting. >> how awful. the fbi starting a new internal review to see if it missed any red flags about the suspect, major nadal hasan. sources say he was never put on a watch list, even after they found e-mails between him and a muslim cleric linked to two of the 9/11 hijackers. however they still believe hasan acted alone and was not part of a terror plot. new this morning, basketball legend kareem abdul-jabar has made a stunning announcement about his health. here's rafer weigel with more on that. good morning. >> good morning to you, robin. the 62-year-old says he has cancer, a disease that has a history in his family. his father, his uncle and his grandfather all passed from it. jabar is optimistic saying the rare form of leukemia he has is treatable according to doctors. the 62-year-old was diagnosed in december but he's now talking about it because he wants to give others hope, who also might be diagnosed with the disease. he was not only a basketball star for the lakers, but he appeared in movies like

"airplane" in a bunch of tv shows and now partnering with a company that makes drugs to treat those with the disease. however he approached the company about working together. robin? >> certainly thinking of him. thank you, rafer. seven years after he terrorized the washington, d.c., area, john allan muhammad is scheduled to die tonight. correspondent richard liu joins us now with a look back at the d.c. sniper shootings, seven years already. >> that's right. seven years ago, october the 2nd, 2002, one man was gunned down that night, five more the following day, all people just going about their daily personal business. now over the next few weeks, there were several more shootings, including a 13-year-old boy. he survived, but the final death toll was ten people. people in the d.c. area were panicked until police finally caught john muhammad and lee boyd malvo on october 24th. >> i remember the horror of innocent, bystanders, getting

shot at. >> perplexing. >> but when the child was hit, that's when people were really just aghast. most of these murders happened in maryland, but the attorney general tried muhammad in virginia because a death sentence was more likely there. there are some who think he should not die tonight. >> yeah. reverend al archer is one of them. he met muhammad and his kids in 2001 when they stayed at a homeless shelter he ran in washington state. he believes muhammad only did what he did because he was mentally ill. >> i think that john muhammad is a typical case of untreated mental problems. and i'm very opposed to mentally deficient people being executed. >> defense attorneys as well saying that muhammad suffered from post traumatic stress disorder during his service in the first gulf war. they released a scan of his brain, robin, which they claim

show signs of damage consistent with schizophrenia. >> that point is fascinating. richard, that's going to happen later on tonight then. thank you. michael jackson's father is challenging the late pop star's 2002 will. joe jackson argues that the executors his son's will should be disqualified because they withheld a mistake from the court. his attorney claims that there is proof that the will was signed on a date when michael jackson was in new york, not in l.a. joe jackson was not named as a beneficiary in the will. brand new details about the sex offender suspected of strangling at least 11 women and hiding their bodies around his house in cleveland. yesterday, the niece of cleveland's mayor says she had a relationship with anthony sowell two years ago, and she tells affiliate woio that he took good care of her and she never thought that the smells in his house might be bodies. meanwhile, two more families learned their loved ones were in sowell's home.

>> just told me that her body was intact. that's all. but it's still devastating nevertheless that she died in this manner and was found in a backyard. >> the fbi now says that it's investigating whether suspect anthony sowell might be responsible for unsolved killings and rapes as far away as japan. sowell spent time there as a marine. he faces five counts of aggravated murder. the man accused of trying to blackmail david letterman is expected to ask a judge to drop the case today. a lawyer for cbs news producer robert halderman plans to challenge the evidence. now the case made letterman admit on his own show he had sex with women who worked for him. a family of eight spent two nights in a van trapped in a heavy snowstorm. they were camping in oregon when the storm started. they could not call for help because they had no cell phone. >> i told dad that i wasn't going to make it another night

because i couldn't stand sleeping upright. >> well, the kids' uncle got the search started after he called police saying that they were missing. head's up on the uncle. good for him. >> yeah. please take the cell phone next time. >> be prepared, please. >> 37 minutes past the hour. one of our big stories today is tropical storm ida. here it comes, it's already made landfall on an island. >> dolphin island, alabama. >> has it made landfall on the main land? >> it's really the center of circulation going over right now mobile. the bay of mobile. mobile bay. i'll show you that in a second. i want to show you some of the rain totals we've seen so far as of 6:00 a.m. this morning eastern time. crest view, florida, 4.8 inches of rain, pensacola over 4, mobile over 3.5 inches of rain. the rain continues. see what it looks like with all the action. tropical storm warnings are still in effect for the areas shaded in red along the coast, inland tropical storm wind warnings. you're going to see winds of over 39 miles per hour,

specifically southwestern parts of alabama, extreme southeastern parts of mississippi. watching for that for the rest of the day. it starts across the gulf, beginning to come in through western florida, not a big deal here, but we're watching this one squall, that's the main feeder for the storm coming right across the gulf of mexico, in towards the northern part of the panhandle. 20-mile-per-hour sustained winds when you get towards green point, hollywood beach, 21 mile per hour sustained winds. that's about 39 mile per hour winds. right now at the center of circulation they're calling 45 mile per hour sustained winds with that. look at the rain, heavy at times near atlanta. winds not that bad, 8 miles out of the east. the rain really picks up for you. western parts of alabama, north of birmingham, the reds, oranges, yellows, that's two, maybe 2.5 inches of rain per hour falling in that one spot. again we've already seen doppler radar estimates of over 5 inches in in that one region. mobile, you're basically on the dry side. little light rain. looking at the center of circulation right about there.

i want to show you some video from a couple minutes ago from orange beach. this is around alabama. you can see the way it goes. sun beginning to come on up. this is alabama. you can see it. choppy waves out there. it's not that big of a storm surge. calling for about to 4 to 5 feet, that's about it, it's the heavy rain, the wind, that's what we're going to expect for at least the next couple days. you can see the rain as it stretches towards atlanta and the carolinas. flash flood watches are out there. dark shade of green, light shade of green are all the warned areas and we talked about it before, the rain coming out of the gulf, moving through in towards north and south carolina. more on that coming up, robin, in a bit. where you see the yellow shaded color that's about two inches, the red about four. >> there's the problem spots. >> time for our i-report of the day as well. dan shot this picture yesterday at destin florida as she was getting hammered by ida. she says the weather was already rising yesterday afternoon. the beaches were beginning to show some signs of destruction, a little erosion there. and you see what it looks like. making landfall west of this location, this was yesterday afternoon.

we give you the news, you give us your views, head to cnn.com/robin and learn how you can become an i-reporter. that was out of destin, florida, big choppy gulf of mexico there. more in a little bit. >> we have a strong viewership in the military and -- >> pensacola, yep. >> keep getting a lot of e-mails today, telling us that hey, tuesday, november 10th, is the 234th birthday for the marines, the u.s. marines. >> happy birthday to you guys. >> happy birthday, marines. you got it. the airlines are doing a better job of getting you to your destination on time. but there's one careyer that still has a habit of being late. see if it's yours. there's 106-year-old dancing like there's no tomorrow. he did not. and you won't even believe what he credits for keeping him around so long. must be the ladies.

if you see one of the hot new toys for christmas, grab it up and buy it because toy shortages are starting early this year. our money expert jennifer westhovan is here. what gives? >> retailers are real worried because they're not sure how much we're going to spend and they can't afford to overbuy and be stuck with lots of leftovers. you can see it in the toy market, the barbie fascista dolls may be hard to find. barbie is still the best selling doll in the world. some toys getting hard to find are the pets and matell's mind flex. maybe you get to thanksgiving on time, airlines had their best on-time rate in six years in the latest month. good news for flyers, because there are fewer planes in the sky and runway. 10% fewer flights from the month

before that. alaska, southwest and continental did the best. if you flew delta there was almost a one in five chance you were late. i was one of them. that's why i sound like that. all right. you're going to love this story, i think. you remember aig, the insurance company. >> sure. >> according to reports, financial analysts say in their opinion, aig is going to be able to, may be able to pay back nearly every penny of all that money they borrowed from you. it has borrowed about $120 billion so far. that is if the markets keep recovering, that's a big if, but wouldn't that be nice? of course a lot of people hating this company after it richly rewarded its executives whose decisions brought the company near collapse, costing taxpayer billions of dollars and nearly taking down the whole financial system with them. >> i got to say, if they pay back the money, then we'll all shut up about what they're paying their execs. then it's none of our businesses. >> do whatever you want. exactly. >> thank you. the health care bill is

moving to the senate now that house has passed it. many republicans are still opposed, particularly to government run health insurance. last night on the "joy behar show" maxine waters talked about how president obama is reacting. >> the president wants a bill, no matter what. the president said he's going to sign basically whatever we send him and that's that. he believes that having a health care reform is crucial to his re-election and i don't think you're going to see him getting involved in any way to fight for any aspect. don't forget, on public option, what we had to was keep pressing, pressing and we still didn't get the kind of robust public option we really wanted to have. >> catch the "joy behar show" at 9:00 p.m. eastern on hln. a soccer smack down was caught on tape and no, i'm not talking about the ponytail pull.

we've seen brawl at the pro games and now the girls are doing it in high school.

♪ a 106-year-old veteran, 106 years old, is celebrating life and i mean celebrating. dr. luis stein danced at a surprise birthday party near miami yesterday. hugging on the ladies. he says joining the military was one of the most outstanding events of his life. >> being a soldier boy for 27 years, i loved it. >> he loves the military. >> so what has kept him going for 106 years? he says, women, brandy and dancing! >> me too. every morning. >> party like it's 1909 every morning. >> party like it's 1909. okay. i can't believe what i'm seeing here, but a fight broke out on the field of a high school

girl's soccer game and then it carried over in the stands. it's like two days in a row we've had soccer fights. >> they say that everything comes in threes, so this would prove that. because this is now the third bad behavior example that we've seen on the field. the state championship in rhode island, the final game, tullman against womansockette and tempers are flaerg, look at this girl pull the other girl's hair. come on, this is high school. officials try to break it up and during the trophy presentation, as they're getting their trophies, the fans in the stands start behaving badly as well. no arrests were made. there were no reports of injuries although one girl reportedly had a black eye. look at the girl's young faces, what a way to end the year. and what a way for his guy to end the year. the chiefs cut larry johnson after he was suspended for using gay slurs and attacking his coach on twitter. he's had a history of other off the field issues like a woman

last year sued him for allegedly throwing a drink in her face in a bar. lot of people in kansas city saying good riddens. >> let's have fun. the chicago bulls did a ♪ i won't you take me to funky town ♪ >> listen to this. ♪ i wish that i had jesse's girl ♪ ♪ remember my name fame i don't know why he has a blonde wig on. >> what is it? irene cara. >> then joe cocker. ♪ on a mountain high >> i love that they had the members only jackets as well. >> that was with cute. that endears them to the

community. thank you. hi, bob. >> that's great. what's up, robin? first casualty when it comes to delays in the sky, because of the rain around atlanta right now, a 40-minute delay the average. probably will climb to over an hour. tropical storm ida down south, looking at the rain around atlanta, over an hour possibility by this afternoon. new orleans rain and wind, most likely wind at this point. hour or more possibility. charlotte, rain, 30 to 60-minute delay, tampa, rain, wind. talk about more in a bit. more than 3,000 years can really take a toll, but it won't take nearly that long to restore king tut's tomb to its former glory. y8

so busy morning already for you, huh? is as you're laying there in bed and it looks like your hair had a party after you went to bed. that's all right. i'm robin meade. here's what's going on today. it's cold. usually hurricanes aren't so cold. it's usually a bit more muggy. >> tropical storm ida is lashing the gulf coast with wind, waves and lots of rain. how much rain to expect. plus, an important recall you should know about if you have young children. this stroller could cause your little ones could get hurt. we're talking about tips of fingers coming off basically. and a woman who fell in

front of a speeding train was inches away from death. unbelievable close call. we got it on tape here. don't miss that one. we'll start with tropical storm ida moving over mobile bay right now. there have not been reports of damage yet. the thing is losing steam. here's the big concern. it is flooding because this is going to dump rain on a large portion of the southeast. yesterday you can see the restless ocean waves along the gulf coast signaling ida's approach. but the wind made a mess in florida, too. >> i heard this big crack, and it went this way, thank god. glad the winds were coming from the northeast instead of of the southeast. otherwise it would have hit that house. >> bob has the latest on ida. explain. i keep talking about, oh, my gosh, look at the rain that's coming. you can show us. >> yeah. it's here. no doubt about it. 45-mile-per-hour sustained winds, the center of circulation right over the mobile bay. came of over dolphin island 5:40

central time. look at the clouds ahead of that, the heaviest rain. you can see the feetder bands dip willing through the panhandle and the gulf. that's what's supplying this with all the moisture. that's what look like on the satellite picture. the path of this thing goes up toward alabama this morning, rolls along i-10 when you get into florida, loses its tropical characteristics, gets absorbed by a cold front in the north and by later this week forms into a low off the coast of carolinas, hopefully not atropical low. a few moments ago the former washington, d.c., police chief weighed in about tonight's scheduled execution of the d.c. sniper. it is planned at 9:00 p.m. eastern. the supreme court rejected john allen muhammad's final appeal, but virginia's governor could step in. here is charles ramsey. >> it's bringing something to

closure. i think the punishment is appropriate. i think that, you know, mr. muhammad certainly -- the kinds of crimes he committed, the fear that he instilled upon everybody who was associated with that, that lived the region and a lot the country for that matter. certainly i'm grateful we finally apprehended him, he certainly deserves to die. >> muhammad's accomplice lee boyd malvo got life in prison. if you own a mcclairn umbrella stroller, stop udzing it immediately. some kids have been getting their fingers stuck in the side hinge. i don't mean just stuck. what else do you have? >> this is a recall of more than a million strollers because they're really dangerous. we've been hearing how sometimes the hinge can pinch. in this case, it doesn't just pinch. 12 kids have lost a fingertip. we're talking about nine models double and single umbrella

strollers sold in the last 12 years like the volo, the triumph. the solution is easy. it's that little hinge, a plastic hinge they're snapping right on there. if you call the company, they will send you one for free. you can snap it right on. if you need more information, go to the lirngs at our website, cnn.com/robin. but fortunately it does seem like you can fix it pretty easily. back to you. >> good. thank you. former president bill clinton will try to get senate democrats to support health care reform. he's going to meet with senators during their weekly caucus. democratic leaders have said that if dems fail on health care they're going to pay for it on election day. that happened when clinton failed in his health care bid in 1994 and republicans took congress. today at ft. hood, president obama joins grieving families and a shaken community looking for answers to last week's deadly shooting spree. he will meet privately with the relatives of those killed and

then attended a funeral. meanwhile, the fbi is starting an internal review to sigh if it missed red flags about the suspect, major nidal hasan. >> i guess no one saw the signs, missed the signs with him. can you imagine if they miss the signs with someone else? it's ridiculous. >> i think that there were probably a lot of connections that should have been made that weren't made. but we're at war and under a lot of pressure, and maybe that's what happened. >> major hasan is still in the intensive care unit at an army hospital in san antonio. investigators believe that he acted alone and was not part of a terror plot. sources say he was never put on a watch list even after they found e-mails between him and a muslim cleric linked to two of the 9/11 hijackers. investigators said there was no mention of threat or violence in the e-mails. a woman fell onto a train track moments before the train arrived and we have the video. this happened friday in boston.

there she goes. she lost her balance putting out a cigarette and fell. transit police say she was intoxicated. people frantic alley waved at the oncoming train. look. the driver stopped just in time. the woman's okay. the train driver was honored yesterday. i have now the reenactment from meteorologist bob van dillen. >> but she was fine, right? she was fine? she avoided the third rail? >> we can make fun because she ended up being fine. >> i don't even think she knew she did it. seems like she may have been a little intoxicated. >> that's what the officials said. >> let me show you what's happening with the radar. this is the heaviest rain by far across alabama. you see the feeder band, the main one, that's coming out of the gulf of mexico. it's supplying this whole thing with the heavy rain in north

georgia through nashville, tennessee, into the western part of the carolinas. let me zoom into the area where the center of circulation is located, right off toward the northwest of this region, right around mobile bay. here is orange beach. things have begun to clear out a bit for you. let me show you tape from just a couple of minutes ago. center of circulation to your north, drier air feeding on in. this is the way it looked about ten minutes ago in orange beach. how beautiful is that? >> that is pretty. >> you can see the feeder bands supplying that whole monster with a lot of rain. we're talking three to six inches of rain on top of what you've already seen in central alabama, eastern mississippi, parts of georgia, too. we still have the tropical storm warnings, all the areas shaded in red. inland tropical warnings around southern alabama. check out some of the winds, not bad toward the green point area in florida, but you you really get the winds out of this feeder band, the main one coming in toward tallahassee, stretching all the way into georgia, the carolinas, and then wrapping back down around through tennessee, going all the way in

towards alabama and basically mississippi. that's the heaviest rain. three to six inches of rain easy, all moving to the east. we'll talk about that in just a bit. >> thank you. flying during the holidays, expensive enough. but while you're stuck at the airport at least you can stay connected for free. we'll tell you more about that. remember the former astronaut, i know you do, accused of wearing a disguise and trying to kidnap her romantic rival. she is due in the court, but so is the woman she allegedly attacked. sm

smoo. we love to salute the troops and today's no exception. today's salute is for private first class aaron william oxenford from his mama.

she missed his birthday and he is missed at home. >> hi, robin. my salute is going out to my woernful son, private first class aaron oxenforded. i'm sure he'll pick on me by the end of this because i am going to cry. aaron, we're all very proud of you. we want you to be safe. please know that we love you and we can't wait for you to come home. i might not understand why you've joined the army fully, but i'm very proud of what you're doing. >> aaron cannot pick on his mom because she did not cry there. if you have somebody in the service you want to salute, go to cnn.com/robin. the former astronaut accused of attacking another woman over an ex-boyfriend may take a plea deal. lisa nowak will be in court in florida. nowak pleaded not guilty to attempted kidnapping and other charges. the woman that she allegedly attacked, though, is expected to be there today. that ought to be interesting.

think you know the news? you probably do because you watch this show. so prove it, use it, challenge your friends, yourself, test your knowledge. by the way, on cnn challenge you can pick your favorite anchor to be your new best friend. no pressure, but i'm one of them. play now at cnnchallenge.com. pick me. choose me. love me. if you have any money in the stock market right now, you probably did pretty well yesterday. the stocks soared on wall street. our money expert jennifer westhoven, good morning. >> it's a good sign for the economy even if you don't have stocks. maybe you've got a pension, which is probably involved in stocks, a powerful rally lifting the dow to its best level in a year. you may remember the dow got to 10,000 for a while and then pulled back. now it's well above that. this has been going on for a few days, not just here but around the world. that is good news in a bad economy. the rally is coming after the federal reserve said rates will

stay low, that tends to help a lot, plus world leaders said they would keep pulping a lot of money to help their respective economies. at the closing bell last night, the dow rallied 203, closed out the day at 10,226. the futures are down a bit this morning, but still a strong rally. for nasdaq and s&p, too. i think it's two out of three days that we've seen the dow jump more than 200 points. nice going, dow. if you're flying for the holidays, maybe you want to bring your laptop. at almost 50 airports you'll be able to get on the internet for free. free wi-fi from google is starting today. it's just for the holidays. maybe it will help a little if you get delayed. not at all the big airports, though. you can check our website to see which one, cnn.com/robin. it's at miami, san jose, seattle, but not atlanta or jfk, for example. >> go figure. those are huge airports. >> you know, i started to think about it a little more. my guess is there's other

companies who make you pay like 10 bucks to log in at those airports already. >> oh. >> i'm just guessing. can't standed that stuff. >> competition, in other words. you might be thinking about cutting back on your holiday spending. a lot of people are looking at the travel costs and they won't be staying home for the holidays, but you might want to get the guest bed ready. plus, basketball legend kareem abdul-jabbar says he's sick and he wants everybody to know about it.

the man known as the d.c. sniper is scheduled to be put to death in 13 hours. john allen muhammad and his

accomplice gunned down ten people in 2002. richard lui, his two ex-wives are dealing with what might happen to him very differently apparently. >> that's right. will we'll talk about first his first ex-wife and oldest son. they plan to visit him today. last night his son told larry king from our sister network cnn what today's meeting might be like. >> there probably will be a hug. more so just probably be a conference. we need to talk, get some things out in the open. i haven't talked to him in years. of course i have questions i need to ask him. >> in prison, muhammad wrote twice a week to his first ex-wife mostly talking about how much he loved his kids. she plans to take his body home with them for a private burial, robin. >> wow. muhammad had three kids apparently with the second wife. she says completely opposite here. she has no interest in seeing him now. >> no interest, robin. mildred muhammad saying the

sniper shootings were actually part of a plan to kill her. she said muhammad threatened to kill her after she filed for divorce. she moved her family to maryland to hide. then shortly after that the shootings began. she says she felt guilty when she first heard he was a suspect. >> i felt that way initially because i had done everything that i knew how to do in ordered to bring attention to how dangerous john was for me. i had no idea that his anger would extend beyond me to include other people in his killings. >> robin, muhammad's second wife also saying she does not believe he is mentally ill as his attorneys have been arguing. >> richard, thank you. once again, that happens tonight. new this morning -- basketball legend kareem abdul-jabbar has revealed that he has cancer. here's rafer with more on the story. what kind of cancer? >> a rare form of blood cancer. the good news is, the prognosis according to his doctors is good. he says this is not a death sentence.

now he wants to give others hope. the 62-year-old diagnosed with something called chronic myeloid luke emma in december. docs say he has a great chance of living a normal life with the disease. he's only 62. he wants to give hope to others. he said he approached a pharmaceutical company to launch an educational campaign. now working as a spokesman. lagarrette blount who punched a boise state player will be back. one was suspended indefinitely. he will suit up against arizona state. the pac 10 approved that. monday night football denver hosted pittsburgh saying thank you, some vet s who were at the game. the steelers with the come-from-behind win. look at heinz ward jump over bailey like he's not even there. dangerous move being folks. then finds a few steelers fans in the broncos fan and finds a

guy wearing his jersey and gives him a ball. lastly, meet 44-year-old scott smith from new jersey who has almost every sports illustrated ever printed. he also got a lot of them signed by those on the cover. mike tyson right there. he said he spent 300 grand to 400 grand on travel expenses to get all of the signatures. he's selling the whole thing on ebay starting bit is 2 million. he says he will sell them individually as well. >> oh, he's willing to break up the collection. >> he is. which i'm guessing is what will end up happening. >> see if he gets any real bids. a family of eight started losing hope of being found alive after they got stuck in a snowstorm. but a phone call led to an amazing rescue. that story new for you in about 35 minutes. bob, do you have a collection of anything? >> just the "mad" magazine i useded to have but tossed.

i grew up you on it. you could never guess, right? >> i did, too. >> good. what's going on, rob? let me start out with the radar picture super imposed on the map with planes on top of that. the reason i'm showing you this is this is atlanta. look at the heavy rain over it. that is all from ida. it stretches all the way back into northern alabama and eastern parts of mississippi. we have a delay at atlanta airport, a 40-minute delay, probably grows to over an hour. same are new orleans with the wind out there. will philly, morning fog. otherwise, charlotte, orlando, rain and wind down in florida, jacksonville, orlando, tampa. maybe even miami with the wind looking at some short delays. seattle, san francisco out west, it's low clouds, 30-minute to one-hour delays. i'll have the latest on tropical storm ida, where it's headed, in about ten minutes. in this economy, jobs are hard to find. there's something else hard to find this holiday season. some of the most popular toys! say it ain't so.

the president meets with his national security team tomorrow.

the man accused of trying to blackmail david letterman is expected to ask a judge to drop the case today. a lawyer for cbs news producer robert halderman plans to challenge evidence. letterman admitted on his own show he had sex with women who worked with him. a car bomb exploded, killing 20 and wounding dozens more. that's from police in pakistan. the blast twisted cars and destroyed several buildings. it's at least the area's third attack in just the last three days. those are some of our headlines. it's tuesday, very early. look at you up you early today. rise and shine. i'm robin meade. during wartime, u.s. troops know the risks they're facing. but today at ft. hood there is a memorial for 12 soldiers and one civilian killed in the kind of attack that no one expected, a shooting rampage on the post and a fellow soldier is the suspect. president obama will attend the service and meet with the families. some of the witnesses are still

stunned by what they saw. >> people started running and we could see people throwing chairs and stuff at the windows. at first we didn't know what was going on. we couldn't hear the gunshots. as people started running out, you saw people drenched in blood and stuff, people are yelling, he's shooting, he's shooting. >> the fbi is starting a new internal review to see if it missed any red flags about the suspect, major nidal hasan. sources say he was never put on a watch list even after they found e-mails between him and a muslim cleric linked to two of the 9/11 hijack hes. however, they believe he acted alone. new this morning, kareem abdul-jabbar has made a stunning announcement he has cancer. rafer has more on that story. good morning. >> good morning, robin. whenever you hear news like this, it always shocks you. abdul-jabbar was a legend, also a star. he was diagnosed with a rare

form of blood cancer kaled myeloid leukemia, diagnosed almost a year ago. he's now coming forward because he was told this disease is very curable and he wants to get that message out, a message of hope. he has partnered with a company that makes drugs to treat those with the disease and now is a paid spokesman for them. new this morning. just in as well, a toddler was one of three people killed in a drive-by shooting. six others hurt. it happened last night in a small town near charleston, south carolina. the people killed were related. we don't know how exactly. police did not comment to the associated press, but we'll update you when we get more details. you might have growing doubts about the government's ability to ward off an h1n1 epidemic. the cnn opinion research corporation poll finds since august 8% more americans have lost confidence that h1n1 prevention will happen. but 53% are actually hopeful

that the government and private companies can produce enough of the vaccine. brand new details about the sex offender suspected of strangling at least 11 women and hiding their bodies around his house in cleveland. yesterday the niece of cleveland's mayor says that she had a relationship with anthony sowell two years ago. she tells affiliate wioi that he took good care of her and she never thought the smells in his house might be bodies. meanwhile, two more families learned their loved ones were with in sowell's home. >> just told me that her body was intact. that's all. >> but it's still devastating nevertheless, that she died in this manner and was found in a backyard. >> the fbi now says that it's investigating whether suspect anthony sowell might be linked to unsolved killings and rapes as far away as japan. sowell spent time there as a maro marom mari

marine. he faces five counts of aggravated murder. you know, my immediate reaction when i heard this new angle that this woman had a relationship with him for a couple of years, what did she think the smell was? the whole neighborhood. >> here comes the rain. >> it's heavy at times. this is the stuff we're worried about, not the wind really but the rain coming out of tropical storm ida. you can see the way it goes on the radar, the heaviest rain, yellow, red across northern alabama. stretching down with the feeder band through georgia into the panhandle of florida and dipping to the gulf. the center circulation of ida now is right around mobile bay. it's actually getting inland right about now. behind it drier air coming in. but the waves are still up across the gulf. let me show you video we took about an hour and a half ago. the waves, a lot of action. little bit of beach erosion, waves chopping up across. definitely not surfable. a rough surf, through the morning, early afternoon, before it begins to die down a bit by

this evening. tropical storm warnings are out there for lower alabama, florida, inland tropical storm wind warnings are posted southern parts of alabama and extreme southeastern mississippi. that's because the winds are going to be over 39 miles per hour. right now we're looking at the winds about 16 miles per hour when you get toward horseshoe beach in florida hollywood beach. you can see it's between these two reporting stations, that feeder going into tallahassee, drawing the rain in through georgia, atlanta. delays at the airports here, more rain coming in across alabama, through mississippi and back down again towards the gulf coast everything is november moving to the northeast. getting the heavy rain approaching the western carolinas, the mountains. that will squeeze out an additional three, maybe four inches of rain today and more rain overnight tonight. look at the next 48 hours, robin. new purple colors coming in. that purple shade is right about six to eight inches of rain a possibility around the atlanta metro and back again across northern georgia. something we're really going to

have to watch out for. flash flood watches are up. more on that in just a bit, rob. >> thanks. the airlines are doing a better job of getting you to your destinations on time. yea! at least one carrier has a habit of being late. will you'll see the on-time deliveries. that is a 106-year-old dancing. he just celebrated a milestone birthday. you won't believe what he credits for keeping him around for so long. hey, ladies!

john allen muhammad is scheduled to be put to death

tonight. we're looking back at the d.c. sniper shootings. when you look at this timeline, it's hard to believe sometimes how many people were innocently cut down. >> innocently and it happened seven years ago, robin, october 2, 2002, you were covering that story. one man was gunned down that very night. five more the following day. all people just going about their daily business. then over the next few weeks there were several more shootings, including a 13-year-old boy going to school. >> they were just telling us to be quiet and be calm because a little boy got shot when his mother was dropping him off from home. >> that boy survived, but the final death toll was ten people. people in the d.c. area were panicked as you can probably understand until police finally caught john allen muhammad and lee boyd malvo. >> i remember the police chief in d.c. getting really upset when the child was shot.

thank goodness he survived. the attorney general tried muhammad in virginia because a death sentence was more likely there. there are some who think that he should not be put to death, even after all of these people were killed? >> one person, robin. here is reverend al archer who met muhammad and his kids in 2001 when they stayed at a homeless shelter that he ran in washington state. now, the reverend here believes muhammad only did what he did because he was mentally ill. >> i think that john muhammad is a typical case of untreated mental problems. and i am very opposed to mentally deficient people being executed. >> defense attorneys say muhammad suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder as well during his service in the first gulf war. they released a scan, robin, of his brain which they claim shows sign of damage consistent with

schizophrenia. >> an interesting angle. this is going to happen tonight. that's tonight -- >> in about 12 hours. >> 9:00 p.m. to so much. some of the stories in the papers so you don't have to shuffle outside in your robe, "the l.a. times" reports that in mexico growing numbers of women are being recruited by the drug cartels. apparently women can get past checkpoints along the drug routes more easily. in "the washington post," a new york republican's last name is becoming a verb. dedescozzafava was criticized when she threw her support behind a democrat. now people will say, don't you scozzafava me. "usa today" says the creators of the "got milk" campaign are prepping to keep chocolate milk on kids lunch menus. health advocates say kids get too much sugar already. a 106-year-old veteran is celebrating life.

and i mean celebrating! dr. louis stein danced at a surprise birthday yesterday near miami. he said joining the military was one of the most outstanding events of his life. >> being a soldier boy for 27 year years, i loved it. >> he loved the military. >> it's part of me. >> so what has kept him going for 106 years? he says -- and i quote -- "women, brandy, and dancing"! >> i love it. that's the recipe, huh? >> isn't that cute? if you see one of the hot new toys for christmas and you've got the money, grab it up now because toy shortages are starting earlier this year. what gives, money expert, jennifer westhoven? >> it's not that they don't want to buy a lot of toys but they're

scared. retailers are worried that you might not spend. look, they're in trouble, too. they can't afford to get stuck with a lot of leftovers. they can't do a lot of over-ordering. so they've been ordering in small batches instead. we're seeing it in toys. but it goes for all products. this is the mechanical hamster that runs around in a mill maze and eats food. when it goes to the bathroom, which isn't messy, there's a little flushing sound. >> oh, how cute is that? >> they say you can even kind of train them. they have a computer chip in there or something. but it may be hard for you to find them for the holiday. other toys are getting hard to find like mattel's mind flex and barbie fashionista. maybe you'll get to thanksgiving on time this season if this trend keeps up. airlines had their best on-time rate in six years in september. that is good news for fliers. but it's not necessarily because they suddenly made some changes or the weather got better. it's because there are fewer planes on the runways. 10% fewer flights from the month

before so not as much congestion. who did the best? alaska, southwest and continental. but if you flew delta you had almost a one in five chance that you were late in september. robin? >> ouch. thank you. you know, more than 3,000 years can really take a toll. but it won't take that long to restore king tut's tomb to its former glory. we've seen brawls like this one at pro soccer games. these are high schoolers!

king tut's tomb is getting a makeover. egypt's government announced plans to restore the four-roomed crypt belonging to the so-called boy king. it is more than 3,000 years old. heat, humidity, thousands of yearly visitors are really taking a toll. so the renovations could take five years, and the tomb will have to close during part of that. are you at risk of identity

theft? a new website can tell you. hln money expert clark howard tells you about a free and easy way to help protect your identity. >> what risk are you at of identity theft? we hear so much about it. you you see all the commercials about how there's this great way for you to keep your identity from being stolen and all that stuff. but how would you figure out how much risk you are actually at? well, there's now a mathematical formula for free. you y you can run yourself through and see how much risk you're actually under based on your profile of having your identity stolen. you go to a website called myidscore.com. when you get there, you fill out a short amount of information about yourself, and, if you're trusting enough, your social security number. i chose to put it in there to see what it would show for me, and guess what it showed for me. i was at pretty high risk of identity theft.

thank goodness i've already frozen my credit. but check out your number and see if you need to take more precautions to protect yourself. i'm clark howard. for more ways to protect your wallet, go to cnn.com/clarkhoward. >> clark will teach you to save more, spend less and avoid getting ripped off. catch him noon eastern on saturdays and sundays right here on hln. a fight broke out in a high school girls soccer game, caught on video. what's with the fights? >> ah, at this point it becomes scary. >> here's the big headline, too. this was the state finals. >> state high school. >> this is the top of the top. the last place you would expect this kind of behavior. but the high school championship in providence, rhode island, will be one that they will want to forget. it's the last game tolman against woonsocket. the punches are thrown. look at the hair pulling, reminiscent of the individuvide

been showing the last couple of days. then during the trophy presentation the fans start fighting as well. it's high school soccer. why would you fight over this? no arrests were made. there were no reports of of injuries. but look at the young faces. >> they're babies. >> they're children. nice way to end their year. kansas chiefs caught trouble. running back larry johnson speaking of ending his season after using gay slurs and attacking his coach on twitter. he was also not playing that well. last year a woman sued him for allegedly throwing a drink in her face in a bar. they're probably saying good riddance to him in kansas city. let's end on a fun note. the chicago bulls did a little spoof on nba.com of all those '80s compilation albums. here are the players singing.

>>. ♪ funky town >> jesse's girl ♪ >> with his arms up. >> with his members only jacket and a blond wig. it's funny stuff. >> that is so cute. if you can't laugh at yourself, who can you laugh at, right? huge news in the casey anthony case. investigators say they found traces of chloroform on a bottle and a is a rsyringe. >> the chloroform -- searches for chloroform are on the internet in the anthonys' home. the traces of chloroform are in casey anthony's car trunk. the body is found at the scene where we're still not talking about where casey anthony's childhood friends say is the exact same spot they used to hang out and bury their pets when they were younger. now we know there are traces of chloroform, much chloroform, found in a gatorade bottle and a

syringe at that scene. >> get the latest on any developments on the story on "prime news within" with mike ga lan know. one family camping trip turned into a rescue mission.

all right. fwood good morning. good morning, sunshine. come on in and join us here for a little bit while we do some news. i'm robin meade. here's what's going on in the headlines. tropical storm ida has barreled ashore bringing rain and winds with it. an important recall you need to know about if you're the parent of a young one. the strollers that could cause your young ones to get seriously hurt. that story in two minutes. a woman who fell in front of a speeding subway was inches away from death. an unbelievable close call caught on tape. first, though, tropical storm ida is moving over

southern alabama right now. it is expected to head for the florida panhandle. ida's winds are losing steam. but they've been blamed for causing some power outages. flooding is still the major concern because of all the rain it's expected to dump on the southeast. winds from the storm made a mess in parts of florida. >> i heard this big crack. and it went this way, thank god. >> glad the winds were coming from the northeast and not from the southeast. otherwise it would have hit that house. >> let me show you or let bob show you how far inland the rain concerns are. >> good morning, robin. it's a huge concern. because that big rain swath now is headed through northern alabama into tennessee coming out of mississippi and back on in towards georgia and the carolinas. here's that satellite picture. bull points go like this. 45 mile per hour sustained, little higher gusting. the winds itself, center of circulation is right over southern alabama now. but as those thunderstorms develop around that center of circulation, they get blown up to the north. that's why you see all the clouds way ahead of that center

of circulation. down in the south you can see what it looks like. feeder bands dropping into the gulf of mexico. heavy rain for the next day, day and a half, two days. see the remnants as they move on into the florida panhandle. they could absorb back across the carolinas. that's probably going to be a problem for you for north and south carolina. and new england for the latter part of the week. might verge with a storm out in the atlantic. i'll show you the satellite picture in five minutes. >> a merging of storms. i think not. today at ft. hood president obama joining grieving families and a shaken community looking for answers after last week's deadly shooting spree there. he'll meet privately with the relatives of those killed. then he'll attend a memorial service at the army post. the fbi is starting a new internal review to see if it missed any red flags about the suspect, major nidal hasan. >> i guess no one saw the signs on him. they missed the signs with him. can you imagine they missed the

signs with someone else? it's ridiculous. >> i think that there were probably a lot of connections that should have been made that weren't made. but we're at war, and we're under a lot of pressure, and maybe that's -- you know, that's what happened. >> major hasan is still in intensive care at an army hospital in san antonio. the investigators believe he acted alone and was not part of a terror plot. sources say he was never put on a watch list, even after they found e-mails between him and a muslim cleric linked to two of the 9/11 hijackers. investigators said that there was no mention of threats or violence in the e-mails. if you own a mcclaren umbrella stroller, it's a brand, stop using it immediately. some kids have been getting their fingers stuck in the huge. >> we're talking about a million strollers that are affected.

they're very dangerous. 12 kids lost a fingertip in the hinges. these are the nine models. double and single umbrella soldiers sold in the last ten year. these are very popular. so they are sold at places like toys r us, for example, and big stores. but they're sold in many places where there are strollers. the volo and triumph are two of the models involved. look it all up. it's on our web page. cnn.com/robin. the solution is pretty simple. call or contact mclaren through the website. they send a free cover that goes right on the hinge that's supposed to fix that up. yesterday so many parents were on the website, it was hard to get through. they got a lot of demand. keep trying. they'll send you one out for free. the former washington, d.c. police chief isn't holding back about tonight's scheduled execution of the d.c. sniper.

it's planned for 9:00 p.m. eastern. the supreme court rejected john allen muhammad's final appeal. virginia's governor could step in. here's charles ramsey, former police chief, now philadelphia police commissioner. >> i think if anybody should receive the death penalty, it's john allen muhammad. i feel absolutely no regrets about that whatsoever. in fact, if i was there, i'd push the button. >> muhammad's attorneys are fighting the execution, saying that their client is mentally ill. in a few minutes we're going to hear from someone else who says that he should not be put to death. former president bill clinton will try to get senate democrats to supreme court health care reform. he'll meet with the senators during their weekly caucus today. democratic leaders have said if demes fail on health care, they're going to pay for it on election day. that happened when clinton failed on his health care in 1994 and republicans took congress. let's have another look at

who is seeing rain on their doorstep as a result of tropical storm ida. it's weird how far inland this thing is. >> yeah. >> good morning. >> it's going all the way to kentucky right now. clouds and rain, too. i want to show you what may happen over the next couple of days. here's ida. it's still right around alabama, southern alabama. all the rain coming in across florida. this over the next 24 hours drifts across western parts of florida, lower georgia. then you see this batch of cloud cover across the western part of the atlantic. that's moving in towards the westerly direction as well. these two storm systems may, in fact, merge over the next couple of days. here's what one of the models is thinking. these two lows begin to turn into one. turns right up the coast of basically the carolinas. over the next couple days a lot of wind. a northeasterly wind today that's going to pick up in intensity through new england, outer banks of north carolina by wednesday, thursday, and friday. even saturday and sunday that wind is is going to be out there. for new england heavy rain a possibility as far north as boston through saturday.

something we're going to watch. heavy rain right now. might merge into a new coastal storm by the end of the week. heavy rain shield itself around atlanta stretches in towards tennessee. one feeder band, that's all it takes to get this moisture on up. that's what we have across florida. goes in towards georgia, see the rain out there. winds at 12 miles per hour. not a huge factor for central georgia back in towards northern alabama. but the rain is. live to atlanta. an airport delay, 40 minutes. that most likely will increase with the low clouds and steady, heavy rain. three to four inches of rain for atlanta. north georgia probably about four to five. maybe as much as six to eight when you get across central alabama. more on that coming up in a bit. flooding really is the main concern at this point. we have a breaking story i was working on while bob was doing that. apparently there is a hostage situation, reportedly, at stiszing mountain school in new york state. this is about two hours northeast of new york city. it's in northeastern new york. the reports are -- and cnn

networks have not confirmed this. someone there is saying that a gunman is possibly holding a hostage. but that person has been located and confined to one room. and reportedly, we don't have this confirmed either, that they've made some contact so there's some negotiation going on. just a gunman. we have not heard any shots have been fired. the school is stissing mountain high school in new york state. if we get any updated information on that or confirmation, we'll bring it right to you. right now those are just reports. flying during the holiday season is expensive enough. while you were stuck at the airport you can stay connected and someone else will pick up the bill. you don't say? basketball legend kareem abdul-jabbar says he's sick and he wants everyone to know about it.

time right now for our salute to the troops. today's is for private first class aaron william oxford from his mom. she missed his birthday. he is missed at home as well. >> hi, robin. i'm robin gregory. my salute is going out to my wonderful son, private first class aaron oxenford. i'm sure he's going to pick on me by the end of this, because i am going to cry. aaron, we're all very proud of you. we want you to be safe. please know we love you and we can't wait for you to come home. i might not understand why you've joined the army fully, but i'm very proud of what you're doing. >> sweet message. robin, thank you. if you have somebody in the service, go to cnn.com/robin. returning to our breaking story, new york state police have confirmed to cnn that there is some kind of an ongoing situation at stissing mountain

high school. this is in the town of pine plains, new york, about two hours away from new york city. the only thing that we are hearing here, the reports are is that there is somebody armed in the school. this has not been confirmed. there have been no reports of shots fired, but somebody armed. there is a gunman in the school. we don't know is that a student, is that a parent. what's the deal there. one person who says that he is a town supervisor is on the scene. the word from him is that he does say it's sketchy, that that person's been contained to a single room and there's some talk going on there. it's an ongoing situation. we will certainly get back to you when we have any new pictures or new information that is confirmed. there is word today that insurance giant aig may be able to pay back all of that money that it borrowed from the taxpayers to stay in business. well, bring it on! our money expert jennifer westhoven's here. >> yeah. that is some good news in a bad

economy. and i think good news for people who are just still angry about aig. well, according to some reports, the financial analyst moodies says that aig may be able to pay back nearly every penny of your money that it borrowed. it borrowed about $120 billion so far by some counts. that would be good. now, the big "if." how aig could pay this back is if the markets keep recovering. that is really helping the company be more financially stable along with many other big financial companies. the insurance company, though, hated by so many after it richly awarded executives, even after basically their decisions brought it to the brink of collapse which cost taxpayers billions and nearly took down the entire financial system. if you are flying for the holidays, maybe bring your laptop. because if there's delays at almost 50 airports, there's going to be free wi-fi to take some of the sting out of that.

it's thanks to google. it's a holiday promotion. it starts today only through the holidays. not all the big airports, though. you can get it at miami, san mo say, seattle and houston. not atlanta, newark or jfk. if you want to check our website, cnn.com/robin we've got the full list to see if it's worth it to lug your laptop along glnchts a woman staggered, fell on to the train tracks. the train was seconds away. the third rail was inches away! you've got to see what happened next.

seven years after he terrorized the washington, d.c. area john allen muhammad is scheduled to die tonight. correspondent richard lui joins us now with a look back at the d.c. sniper shootings.

seven years already. >> that's right. seven years ago, october 2nd, 2002, robin. one man was gunned down that night. five more the following day. all people just going about their daily personal business. over the next few weeks, there were several more shootings, including a 13-year-old boy. he survived. but the final death toll was ten people. people in the d.c. area were panicked until police finally caught john muhammad and his accomplice on october 24th, almost three weeks later. >> i remember the horror of people. bystanders just getting shot at. >> perplexing. >> then when the child was hit, that's when people were really just agast. most of these murders happened in maryland. the attorney general tried muhammad in virginia because a death sentence was more likely there. there's some who think he should not die tonight. >> reverend al archer is one of them. he met muhammad and his kids in 2001 when he stayed in a

homeless shelter he ran in washington state. he believes muhammad only did what he did because he was mentally ill. >> i think that john muhammad is a typical case of untreated mental problems. and i am very opposed to mentally deficient people being executed. >> defense attorneys as well saying that muhammad suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder during his service in the first gulf war. they released a scan of his brain, robin, which they claim shows signs of damage consistent with schizophrenia. >> that point is fascinating. that's going to happen later on tonight, then. thank you. back to our breaking story. we have an update here. the deal is that there is a gunman holding a school principal hostage, apparently, today. it's at a high school in pine plains, new york. that's about 90 miles north of

new york city. the police are telling that to cnn. the town supervisor is telling that to cnn. they're saying gunman, what i'm reading into that, hopefully no shots have been fired. that would be a shooter. this is a gunman. police have the gunman contained to a room at stissing mountain high school. there are negotiations that are going on. according to the town supervisor, that person said he believed the gunman is a parent. a gunman is holding a principal hostage according to what's been told to cnn. it's believed to be a parent. although i don't think that part's confirmed. it's not clear whether the principal is from the high school, middle school or maybe elementary. apparently the middle and high school are in the same building. it could be either. any more information, we'll go right to you. stissing mountain high school in -- what's the name of town? pine plains, new york. all right. a lot of developing stories. here's another one. basketball legend kareem abdul-jabbar this morning has

revealed he has cancer. here's rafer with more on what the prognosis is for him. >> the 62-year-old kareem abdul-jabbar says he was diagnosed with a form of blood cancer called myeloid leukemia. he was diagnosed in december. he first thought he had a short time to live. doctors have told him this type of leukemia is very treatable. he says he approached a pharmaceutical company to launch an educational campaign. he was not only a basketball legend but starred in movies like "airplane" and other tv shows. remember oregon running back blunt suspended for the entire year for that sucker punch on a boise state player? he's going to be back on the field saturday against arizona state. the school asked the pac 10 to reinstate him. they said okay. he missed eight games. three left in the regular season. that's a look at sports. robin? not a good day for our travelers if you are going to be going anywhere by air. it's getting hit by rain because

of tropical storm ida. >> slamming into the deep southeast. this travel update brought to you by orbitz. what's going on right now, heavy rain over the deep southeast. saber flight explorer with the rain in the plains over the top of it. this is atlanta. look at the plane traffic in and out. notice the heavy rain overhead. yellows, dark greens, that's where it's raining the hardest. it's going to be like that the entire morning. 40-minute delays currently in atlanta. probably going to build to over an hour today. same with new orleans with the winds. philadelphia, so far you have escaped the cloud cover, which is good. charlotte, orlando, rain and wind. you're not going to escape that. we're going to see the rain slow you down 30 minutes to an hour. tampa, jacksonville, seattle, san francisco, poor visibility. rain and wind or plain old low clouds. more details in about a half hour. we're right around the corner from the big holiday travel season, speaking of travel. a lot of you are still going to travel, but you might want to get the guest bedroom ready, honey.

the new york stock exchange just opened for business. the dow went through the roof yesterday and climbed to its highest point in 13 months. but it may not keep going. we're going to get an idea why when susan lisovicz joins us in about five minutes. first, though, a car bomb exploded while people were sitting in traffic killing at least 20 people and wounding dozens more. this is from police in pakistan. they say the blast twisted cars and destroyed several buildings. it's at least the third attack in the area in the last three days. tropical storm ida is moving over alabama right now. earlier this morning the national hurricane center said ida officially made landfall at

dolphin island, alabama. it has gotten weaker. the concern is with flooding because of all the rain that it's bringing. some scatter powder outages have been reported as well. the white house is slamming reports that suggest president obama has already decided to send more troops to afghanistan. national security adviser general jim jones says that the reports are false. senior administration officials suggest that pentagon sources leaked the misinfo. the president meets with his national security team tomorrow. good morning. tuesday. i know you're always busy about this hour. it's 31 minutes past the hour. just wanted to check to make sure you're up on time. a breaking news story today i need to update you on here. a gunman is apparently holding a school principal hostage at a high school in pine plains, new york. it's about 90 miles north of new york city. officials are telling cnn that they believe the gunman is a parent. police there have the gunman contained to a room, at least, at stissing mountain high

school, it's called. there are negotiations under way. it was not clear whether the principal is from the high school or the middle school, because apparently they share the same building. but this started about an hour and a half ago and it's not known how many people were in the school at the time. but about 600 people, 500 children, 100 staff members, are usually at that school building during a school day. during wartime, u.s. troops know the risks that they're facing. today at ft. hood a memorial for 12 soldiers and 1 civilian killed in a kind of attack that nobody expects. a shooting rampage on the post, and a fellow soldier is the suspect. president obama will attend the service and meet with the families. you know, some of the witnesses are still stunned by what they say. >> people started running. we could see people throwing chairs and stuff at the windows. at first we didn't know what was going on. we couldn't hear the gunshots because the doors were closed. as people started running out, you saw people just drenched in blood and stuff and people are yelling, he's shooting, he's shooting! >> nearly a year ago the fbi

looked at the suspect, major nidal hasan. they said that there were no red flags despite knowing about e-mails between hasan and a muslim cleric linked to two 9/11 hijackers. now the fbi is starting a new internal review to see if it could have done anything differently. the man accused of trying to blackmail david letterman is expected to ask a judge to drop the case today. a lawyer for cbs news producer robert halderman plans to challenge the evidence. remember the case made letterman admit on his own show that he had sex with women who worked for him. new this morning, basketball legend kareem abdul-jabbar has made a stunning announcement about his health. that he has cancer. what kind, rafer? >> a rare form of cancer that has the dreaded word leukemia in it. the basketball legend starred in films like "air"airplane" and t shows. he was diagnosed with myeloid

leukemia back in december. doctors say it was not a death sentence and he has a very good chance to live a normal life. >> i had a very good friend who died three or four years ago from a different type of leukemia. but when that happened, it was devastating. and i thought i had the same thing and that i had months or weeks to live. >> so he is now partnered with a company that makes drugs to treat those with the disease. he's a paid spokesman for them. but wants to raise hope and awareness to anybody else who might have myeloid leukemia. a family of eight spent two nights in a van, trapped in a heavy snowstorm. they were camping in oregon when the storm started. they could not call for help. they had no cell phone! i don't know why dad didn't take a cell phone. the kids' uncle got the search started after he called police saying they were missing. >> they're fine now. >> they're fine now. here's the real story. dad decided he was going to take the seven kids.

>> look, i'm all for family time. but be prepared were for goodness sake. a huge snowstorm and no line of communication. >> mom said she wasn't worried until she got the call they were missing. i don't know. wouldn't you be just worried? the kids are going camping without a cell phone and dad. heavy rain all from tropical storm ida. you can see one feeder band goes all the way down to the gulf of mexico. that's the main one. it's drawing out of a lot of moisture going through georgia, wrapping up in through the carolinas back through kentucky and tennessee and back down again across the alabama region. real heavy at times. here's the satellite picture. as of just a couple hours ago it was a 45-mile-per-hour sustained wind storm. tropical storm. southern parts of alabama. the main circulation is still way south of all the thunderstorms that are way ahead of it. it is going to continue to work its way to the north and then drive eastward and reform as another low off the carolina

coast by tomorrow evening or tomorrow night. we're going to be watching this heavy rain for most of the day. tallahassee covered up with heavy rain. the spirals rain band dipping into the gulf of mexico. red shaded areas is where you're getting the heaviest rain. haven't seen signs of rotation out of individual thunderstorms. that's good news. you don't want to see tornadoes form out of this. certainly a possibility as you have one of these feeders move on through. the heavy rain is going all the way in towards atlanta, delays at the airport because of that one. heavy downpours across the western side of alabama. get down through the south, things are beginning to dry up for you. panhandle through alabama into mississippi, too. show you a little video we got from about an hour ago. we're watching the dry air come back on in through southern parts of alabama. sunshine peeking through. look at the water. i wouldn't suggest getting close to the water. look at the size of those waves.

more details in a bit. >> thank you for live look. i don't know if that's live. >> that's about an hour ago. stocks powered ahead yesterday with the dow rallying about 200 points. why are we looking at the pullback today? >> monday's big gains bought the dow to 13-month highs. not much to keep the rally going today. we're talking marginal losses. instead, well, the big news is job cuts to tell you about. sprint and nextel announced it will cut up to 2,500 jobs. sprint cut 8,000 jobs in the first quarter. video game maker electronic arts meanwhile is laying off about 1,500 workers. ea has been stung by a big invest it it made in the nintendo wii. ea rival activision blizzard

could shatter records for retail video game sales. it released "call of duty: modern warfare ii" and frenzied gamers are expected to snatch up as many as 13 million copies by the end of the year. robin meade and i will not be among those playing it. it's not our demographic. i don't think, anyway. we could do other things. finally, google says it will pay for your internet at the airport this holiday season. the internet search giant will provide free wi-fi at 47 airports including some of the busiest like miami and orlando. google calls it a holiday gift to users. there's a catch. you know, you'll try some of its products, and hopefully then you'll start buying one of its products. and, of course, the other thing to keep in mind is that, you know, there'll probably be a lot of waiting time this holiday season. >> i think they want you to make it your permanent home page,

too, since you're using their free wi-fi. >> exactly. >> it's not at atlanta hearts field or jfk. >> what good is it? >> how dare they? remember the former astronaut accused of wearing a disguise and trying to kidnap a romantic rival? she's due in court today. you're going to hear about a possible deal on the table? plus a 106-year-old man boogied down with several ladies at his birthday party. what is his recipe for a long, happy life?

the former astronaut accused of attacking another woman over an ex-boyfriend may take a plea deal today. lisa nowak is going to be in court in florida. prosecutor says the court has some conditions. they're not giving details.

nowak pleaded not guilty to attempted kidnap ing. the woman she allegedly attacked is expected to be there today. that ought to be something. nasa is telling us do not worry. december 21st, 2012, is not the end of the world. the movie "2012" opens friday. it's fueled some internet rumors based on the belief that the end of the mayan calendar coinsides with earth's expir ration date. nasa says that's like thinking the world is going to end because your wall calendar ran out and nothing is going to happen to earth, it says. this past weekend the house passed landmark legislation to overhaul health care. and it did not make those taking part in the tea party express very happy. richard is here. you're going to be covering that in the next hour. what are they doing? >> they're on the road. if anything, saturday's vote you were talking about may have just fired them up even more. this is some of the video from last night. we'll show you the latest stop for the tea party express and what they don't like about that health care reform bill from the house.

also, are you having a hard time kicking the old habit? we may be as close as we've ever been, robin, to having a vaccine to help people stop smoking. then we know what happens in vegas stays in vegas. but this? now what happens in a vegas strip club evidently happens on the strip. that's coming up in about 15 minutes. >> careful with that video there. >> exactly. i was looking at, i was like -- let me just keep that up there. >> excellent. okay. are you at risk of identity theft? a new website can tell you. hln money expert clark howard tells us about a free and reasy b way, he says to protect your identity. >> what risk are you at of identity theft? we hear so much about it. we see all the commercials about how there's this great way for you to keep your identity from being stolen and all that stuff. how would you figure out how much risk you are actually at? there's now a mathematical formula for free you can run yourself through and see how much risk you're actually under

based on your profile of having your identity stolen. you go to a website called myidscore.com. when you get there, you fill out a short amount of information about yourself. and if you're trusting enough, your social security nusmber. i chose to put it in there to see what it would show for me. guess what it showed for me? i was at pretty high risk of identity theft. thank goodness i've already frozen my credit. check out your number and see if you need to take more precautions to protect yourself. i'm clark howard. for more ways to protect your wallet go to cnn.com/clarkhoward. >> clark will teach you to save more, spend less and avoid getting ripped off. that's why you need to catch him at noon eastern on saturdays and sundays, 4:00 p.m. if you can't make it at noon, on hln. 106-year-old veteran is celebrating life. and i do mean celebrating. dr. louwy stein stanced and

danced and danced at a surprise birthday party yesterday near miami. come here, pretty lady! he says joining the military was one of the most outstanding events of his life! >> being a soldier boy for 27 yea years, i loved it. >> he loved the military. >> so what has kept him going so strong for 106 years? he says, and i quote, women, brandy, and dancing. i love it. all right. a soccer smackdown was caught on tape. you've seen brawls like this at pro games. we're talking high schoolers here.

all righty. we've already run out and got the papers so you don't have to shuffle outside in your robe. here's what they're reporting. the l.a. times reports that in mexico growing numbers of women are being recruited by drug cartels. apparently, women can get past the check points along drug routes more easily. in the "washington post" a new york republican's last name is becoming a verb.

scozzafava was criticized by conservatives after throwing her support behind a democrat when she dropped out of the congressional race. people are saying don't you scozzafava me. "usa today" says creators of the got milk campaign are prepping to make a push to keep chocolate milk on school kids' lunch menus. health activists say kids get too much sugar anyway heightening america's obesity problems. get this. the niece of cleveland's mayor had a relationship with the same man suspected of strangling at least 11 women and hiding their bodies in his house. she tells affiliate woio that an thonny sowell took good care of her and she never thought the smells in his house might be bodies. sowell faces five counts of aggravated murder. researchers think australia's koe wall la population could be exing tingt within a few years because of climate change. the australia koala foundation

says there are about 43,000 left and there were millions in the 1800s. the population dropped 64% between 1999 and 2008. what is it with video from girls soccer? a fight broke out in high school girls soccer game caught on video. and so make it even worse, it was the state championships? >> it was the state championship. from what i understand that new mexico soccer player is now sending a thank you note -- no, she's not really. it's what's going on here with women's soccer? this was the state championship in providence, rhode island. one they're going to want to be forgetting for a while. it's the last game. a minute left. tempers are flaring. here they are. the girls go at it. look at the hair pulling reminiscent of that new mexico soccer player. officials try to break it up. then during the trophy presentation the fans started fighting in the stands. no arrests were made. there were no reports of injuries. but what a way to end the year for these young kids.

look at their faces. they're children. speaking of ending the year, the kansas city chiefs cut troubled runningback larry johnson after she was suspended for using gay slurs and using g slurs and attacking his coach on twitter. he was not playing that well either but he's had a history of other off-the-field issues. last year a woman sued him for allegedly throwing a drink in her face in a bar. time for a little fun. the chag bulls did a spoof on nbs.com. all of those '80s compilation albums. here they are singing. >> sing it, baby. ♪ take you to funky town i'm wishing i had jessie's girl ♪ >> i love the jheri curl wig. this is my favorite. ♪ i wanna live forever >> that's luol deng, who will

never live that down in a blond wig. and this guy kirck hinrich. ♪ where we belong >> it takes a real man to sing a ballad in a wig like that. >> i think we should do a duet with them. >> cute. very cute. thank you. >> you think they could hear the music, rob? do they do it a cappella and add the music later? >> because it sounded that bad? >> ron presents katel records. looking at tropical storm ida. 35-mile-per-hour winds. the rain will be there until thursday. first, let me show you the delays. 40-minute delay in atlanta t will grow to an hour. new orleans, one or more hour delays a possibility. tampa, same thing. same with orlando. probably jacksonville, too. now it's a tropical depression. winds 35 miles per hour sustained. more on that in a bit.

>> thank you. tropical storm ida is now a tropical depression. it made landfall, and we're keeping an eye on the rain. that's the big story and we're talking rain along the coast but well inland, bracing for serious flooding. @@@@@@@@@@@@